ather's death he had
succeeded to his position as chief of the twelve judges of Ferrara. He
was still in the flower of his youth, being only twenty-seven years old.

This terrible event must have reminded Lucretia of the day when her
brother Gandia was slain. The mystery attending these crimes has never
been dispelled. "No one named the author of the murder, for the pretor
was silent," says Paul Jovius in his eulogy of the poet. But who, except
those who had the power to do so could have compelled the court to
remain silent?

Some have ascribed the deed to Alfonso, stating that he destroyed
Strozzi on account of his passion for the latter's wife; others claim
that he simply revenged himself for the favor which Lucretia had shown
the poet. Recent writers who have endeavored to fathom the mystery and
who have availed themselves of authentic records of the time regard
Alfonso as the guilty one.[216] One of the strongest proofs of his guilt
is found in the fact that the duke, who not only had punished the
conspirators against his own life so cruelly, and who had always shown
himself an unyielding supporter of the law, allowed the matter to drop.

Lucretia has even been charged with the murder on the ground of her
jealousy of Barbara Torelli, or owing to her fear that Strozzi might
disclose her relations with Bembo, especially as he had hoped to obtain
the cardinal's hat through the influence of the duchess, in which he was
disappointed. None of the later historians has given any credence to
this theory. Ariosto did not believe it, for if he did how could he have
made Ercole Strozzi the herald of her fame in the temple of honor in
which he placed the women of the house of Este? Even if he wrote this
stanza before the poet's death--which is not probable--he would
certainly have changed it before the publication of the poem, which was
in 1516.

Nor did Aldo Manuzio believe in Lucretia's guilt, for in 1513 he
dedicated to her an edition of the poems of the two Strozzi, father and
son, accompanied by an introduction in which he praises her to the
skies.

In the meantime Julius II had formed the League of Cambray, which was to
crush Venice, and which Ferrara had also joined. The war kept Alfonso
away from his domain much of the time, and consequently he made Lucretia
regent during his absence. In former days she had occasionally acted as
regent in the Vatican and in Spoleto--but in a different way. In 1509
she saw the war c